Investors are about to get access to one of the most disruptive forces in the financial sector.

Lending Club, the nation’s largest peer-to-peer lender, has filed for an IPO that is likely to gin up a lot of interest, and in turn should spark offerings from other players in the space, such as OnDeck Capital and Kabbage.

Lending Club founder Renaud Laplanche got the idea for the company after looking through his mail. He saw a credit card offer for a 17% interest rate (and one would assume hefty fees). And he also saw the crummy return he got on the other side of the lending deal — his bank savings account, which earned a measly 0.5%. Read

Mobileye (MBLY), which develops so-called Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS), pulled off its IPO in late July and the deal was certainly a hot one. The company priced its shares at $25, which was above the projected $21-to-$23 range. As of now, MBLY is trading above $44.

So is there still an opportunity here? Or should investors be cautious with Mobileye?

Let’s take a look at the core business. MBLY uses low-cost cameras to provide safety features in cars. The technology, which is powered by sophisticated software algorithms and EyeQ chips, can anticipate possible collisions with other vehicles, cyclists, pedestrians, animals and debris. The Mobileye system can also detect such things as lanes, signs, traffic lights and barriers. Read

According to the Brewers Association, the trade group for craft beer in the US, the number of craft brewers in 2013 increased by 15%, resulting in lost market share for America’s biggest craft brewer.

While Americans are drinking less — overall beer shipments in first half of 2014 down 0.1% — production volumes for craft beer increased by 18% in the first six months of this year to 10.6 million barrels. The Brewers Association says the craft beer market has doubled in just four years. Craft beer producers are single-handedly keeping the beer business afloat. And even though the maker of Sam Adams, Angry Orchard (very tasty) and Twisted Tea is losing market share, its business is doing just fine thank you very much. Read

Ten years ago, Google (GOOG) pulled off a tech IPO that would end up returning more than 1,000% — a virtual advertisement for anyone thinking about investing in tech IPOs. Since then, Google has grown by leaps and bounds, no longer “merely” a search company, but a tech firm that has its hands in many cookie jars, from smartphones to e-commerce to driverless cars.

But while GOOG is a clear winner now, the picture was much cloudier before the Google IPO.

Back in 2004, it was far from clear whether search would turn into a huge market, not to mention there was competition from the likes of then-giant Yahoo (YHOO) and Microsoft (MSFT). Plus, some of Wall Street was just a little concerned about co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin, who were … well, kind of kooky. Read

Even though the IPO market remains strong, there is still concern that the upcoming Alibaba IPO may not gin up much demand. Let’s face it, the company is much less known in the U.S. than other operators like Twitter (TWTR) and Facebook (FB).

So to deal with this, the company has been taking some actions to make the deal more attractive.
#1 – Crackdown on Fake Goods

Perhaps the biggest move to hype the Alibaba IPO, according to a post in The Wall Street Journal, is the crackdown on the selling of fake and unauthorized goods on its main online platforms, Tmall and Taobao. Read

Noodles & Company (NDLS), which operates a chain of fast-casual restaurants, had one of the most successful IPOs back in 2013, with the first-day return of about 104%.

Since then, though, NDLS has been on a rough ride, including a grueling 16 drop on Thursday after earnings%. The year-to-date return is now a miserable -41%. Overall, the trashing of NDLS stock is yet another example of how hyped IPOs can easily get scorched.

So what exactly happened at NDLS that made investors so unhappy? Well, the growth rate is decelerating. In the second quarter, revenues only came to $99.5 million — Wall Street was expecting $102.9 million. There was also a drop in adjusted profits, which went from $4 million, or 13 cents per share to $3.7 million or 12 cents per share. Read

Based in Silicon Valley, Tom Taulli is in the heart of IPO land. On a regular basis, he talks with many of the top tech CEOs and founders trying to find the next hot deals and finding out which start-ups are stinkers.

A long-time follower of the IPO scene, back in 1999 Tom started one of the first sites in the space called WebIPO. It was a place where investors got research as well as access to deals for the dot-com boom. Tom also wrote the top-selling book, Investing in IPOs. In it, he covers all the aspects of analyzing an IPO, such as reading the prospectus, detecting the risk factors and understanding some of the arcane regulations. But don’t worry — if that process is too intimidating for you, thankfully Tom will do the legwork for you right here in the IPO Playbook blog.

Tom is routinely quoted in the media about upcoming deals with his interviews on CNBC and Bloomberg TV, but he is eager to take your questions too. You can message him on Twitter at @ttaulli. And feel free to weigh in via the comments section on any of his IPO Playbook posts.